BLOG: Labour must sort their act out

THE latest Ipsos Mori poll heralds awful news for Labour, they have slipped three points behind the Conservatives to 29%.

This cannot come at a worse time for Labour leader Miliband, who is currently facing tough questions over his leadership. Simply put, is he going to stop Labour winning the election?

He’s looking like a contributing factor to their slip. 58% of Labour supporters polled said they were dissatisfied with Miliband as leader.

Only 13% of the overall voting population considers Miliband to be ready for the role as Prime Minister, with numbers as low as this it is no surprise elements of his own party are trying to remove him.

Surely they must wonder what the polls would look like if they had someone else in charge. Miliband lacks charisma and has had the misfortune to have been on the receiving end of several image blunders.

The man cannot look respectable doing anything it seems, whether that be eating a bacon sandwich or giving money to a homeless person. Of course some of these images have been carefully taken from the least flattering angle as parts of the media enjoy the self-replenishing font of ridicule.

All the blame cannot be attributed to one man though; it is a failing of the entire party that Labour polls so low. They should have provided a clear plan a year before the election. Clear policies and a shadow cabinet in need of no more reshuffling would have worked wonders in maintaining support for Labour. It may also have kept the SNP and UKIP from taking so many of their voters.

The problem with Labour is that it is very unclear exactly what the party currently stands for, and what direction it wants to go in. This has allowed the SNP, a party with clear goals and policies, to completely dominate it in the Scottish Parliament. Scottish Labour is on its knees and struggling for votes, their bank of safe seats that gave them an edge over the Conservatives has been plucked from them.

UKIP presents a different problem. Rather than preaching from a similar hymnsheet, they propose drastically alternate policies that actually seem to be striking a chord with voters in Labour strongholds. The former industrial towns of the north aren’t the safe seats they were once considered to be, boroughs here and there are voting for UKIP. The tanks are on Labours lawn as Nigel Farage might say.

It is not all doom and gloom though. The election is still some months away and the Conservatives aren’t too well organised either. There is plenty of time to claw back the majority, or strike a deal with the Greens and Liberal Democrats. Perhaps this is simply the way politics in the UK is going now, a succession of coalitions forced to share power.

The prospect of another coalition may not be enticing, but if it prevented a Conservative government then surely it is the preferable option? The Conservatives are surely considering a future with UKIP, so too must Labour consider their potential allies. But they must think of answers soon, or sit in opposition for another five years.â€‹